Government
Providence serves as Rhode Island's capital, housing the Rhode Island General Assembly as well as the offices of the Governor and the Lieutenant Governor in the Rhode Island State House.
Providence's city government has a mayor-council form of government. The Providence City Council consists of fifteen city councilors, one for each of the city's wards. The council is tasked with enacting ordinances and passing an annual budget. Providence also has probate and superior courts. The U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island is located downtown across from City Hall adjacent to Kennedy Plaza.
David N. Cicilline finished his term as mayor in 2010, 8 years after taking office as the first openly gay mayor of an American state capital. (notably, the second was elected 8 years later in neighboring Hartford, Connecticut.) Providence was the largest American city to have an openly gay mayor, until Sam Adams took office in Portland, Oregon on January 1, 2009.
The city's first Latino mayor was elected in 2010, Angel Taveras, who assumed office January 3, 2011.
Read more about this topic: Providence, Rhode Island
Famous quotes containing the word government:
“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”
—A.J. (Arthur James)
“This is beautiful indeed; the colored people have given this to the head of the government, and that government once sanctioned laws that would not permit its people to learn enough to enable them to read this book.”
—Sojourner Truth (c. 1777–1883)
“The root of the problem is not so much that our people have lost confidence in government, but that government has demonstrated time and again its lack of confidence in the people.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)